The shabby treatment of victorious Falcons

IN an unprecedented action,  members of Nigeria’s senior female national football team announced during the week that they would not release the trophy they won at the recently concluded CAF African Women Cup of Nations in Cameroon to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) until they were paid their outstanding allowances and bonuses. They also resolved to stay put in their Agura Hotel camp in Abuja until their demands were met. Putting the debt owed the team by the NFF in the last eight months at N238.05 million, they accused the federation of negligence and insensitivity, alleging that its leadership hired a chartered flight for N40 million to watch them play on an empty stomach against Cameroon in the AWCON 2016 final match. Currently, some of the players are in hospital attending to the injuries they sustained at the championship.

The NFF had reportedly offered each of the players $100 transport allowance, telling them to go home and await their pay in January. Lamented one of the champions: “That was the same trick they used to deceive us after the qualifiers in Abuja and up till now, nobody has said anything about the outstanding bills. Now, they are telling us that they are making arrangements for the president to host us at the Presidential Villa. All these are stories we are tired of. We want our money, full stop.” But while the Falcons’ issues were yet to be sorted out, the NFF president, Amaju Pinnick and the Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, reportedly jetted out to London to sign a new sponsorship kits deal with NIKE.

However, the NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, who met with the players and officials on Tuesday, blamed their ordeal on the present economic recession in the country.  He said: “It is not government’s doing; it is not anybody’s doing. We know we have financial commitment to you and we have not at anytime stated otherwise. But the money is not readily available at the moment.” In the same vein, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said that the economic situation in the country was responsible for the non-payment of the allowances of the Super Falcons’ players and officials.

To say the least, we are outraged by the treatment meted out to the victorious Falcons by the NFF and the Federal Government. That nasty treatment portrayed Nigeria as a nation without the slightest shred of integrity. Indeed, the NFF’s antics in cajoling the players to play for eight months without pay is callous and inhuman. Neither the players nor  their coaches should have had to endure eight months of agony and deprivation while they put in their best to maintain Nigeria’s status as the powerhouse of female football in Africa.

The Super Falcons and their coaches, like their counterparts from other parts of the world, have families and relations that look up to them for economic succour. We doubt that if they had also not received their dues for eight months, members of the NFF hierarchy would have mouthed the same nationalist platitudes with which they attempted to cajole the Falcons to return home empty-handed after bringing joy to millions of Nigerians who are already battered by economic distress and helping, even if temporarily, to reduce the tension in the country. If the authorities continue to reward the nation’s heroes with this kind of callousness and utter contempt, how can Nigeria’s future be assured?

In our previous comment on the Super Falcons’ epochal victory, we urged the NFF to sort out any outstanding allowances of the players and coaches, if only in the interest of national integrity. We categorically reject the excuse of lack of funds because the debt being owed the Super Falcons and their coaching crew is not beyond the capacity of the government to offset. What is more, the NFF did not treat national teams any better when the economy was in a better shape. In any case, neither members of the NFF nor government functionaries have comported themselves in such a way as to suggest that they are experiencing any austere times. We are disturbed by the NFF’s consistently shabby treatment of national teams and we urge it to redeem its image by meeting the players’ demands.

In playing their hearts out to maintain Nigeria’s dignity in African football, the Falcons and their coaches demonstrated enough patriotism. They have endured affliction for eight months and it is criminal to continue to stretch their capacity for patience. They are not machines, but human beings with emotions, feelings and responsibilities. This is definitely a sad week for Nigerian and, by implication, African football. Forcing long-suffering sportsmen and women to demand for their dues in unconventional ways amounts to deflating their patriotism. The 2016 AWCON champions should be paid without delay.